Pasadena City College plans this fall to create its third satellite campus, this one at John Muir High School.

Dubbed PCC Northwest, it will build on its current evening offerings and schedule classes throughout the day.

The deal will increase accessibility of courses to Muir High School students and Northwest Pasadena residents and provide cash-strapped Pasadena Unified with $150,000 in annual rent payments throughout the 10-year lease, education officials said.

PCC will also pay to improve the 53,000 square-foot Building D, according to terms of an agreement finalized by the city college Board of Trustees last week. PUSD’s school board approved the deal in July.

“The northwest area of Pasadena is an area that has often been neglected,” said Rajen Vurdien, the college’s superintendent/president. “We want to show the college is here to support the community of that area.”

PCC Northwest joins the main campus on Colorado Boulevard, and campuses on Foothill Boulevard and in Rosemead.

The college has been offering evening classes at Muir for a few years plus has a dual enrollment program there that allows high school students to take college courses during the day. This fall, the college will open enrollment of general education courses to all students, regardless of age, during the day and will also add workforce-training programs.

“We fully anticipate we’ll be able to provide opportunities to a broader range of residents in the northwest,” said Robert Bell, PCC assistant superintendent in charge of offsite campuses.

College officials plan to use the results of a recent survey of Northwest Pasadena residents to help inform course offerings at Muir.

Respondents said they would most benefit from self-enrichment and training courses that could lead to better jobs.

According to the agreement, adult students will use the parking lot near Building D and another lot in the back of the campus; they will not use the main school parking lot. The Pasadena Unified school board required that adult students will have access only to Building D and areas adjacent to it during high school hours.

A path directly from the parking lot to Building D, which faces Canada Avenue and the 210 Freeway, will serve the adult students.

The lease agreement could be a way to help address financial issues and enrollment declines at the school district, resident Bob Snodgrass said at a recent PUSD school board meeting.

“I think this has benefits for the students and for the community, and I will say that I doubt that we will have four public high schools in four or five years,” he said. “We have to give special attention to serving the needs of the community, and I believe this is a way to do that.”

Earlier this summer, the board voted to approve a balanced 2018-19 budget. But the outlook for the next two years is not so favorable, with PUSD in danger of falling $3.2 million below the required level for its reserves — considered a rainy-day fund — in 2019-20 and $12 million short in 2020-21.

The PCC lease is the latest example of the district expanding into the real estate business.

The district is taking bids for a building swap, in which it would trade its administrative office building for an investment property with tenants whose rent payments could provide a steady stream of revenue for the financially pinched district.

Chris Lindahl covers Pasadena, El Monte and Pico Rivera for the Southern California News Group. He previously wrote for the Cape Cod Times and Daily Hampshire Gazette in his home state of Massachusetts, where his coverage included higher education, marijuana policy and LGBTQ issues. He's reveling in the novelty of being able to hit the ski slopes and the beach in the same day, however impractical that might be.